敷衍塞责 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to skimp on the job; to work half-heartedly; not to take the job seriously

Character by character

• 敷fūto apply, to paint, to spread
• 衍yǎnto overflow; to spread out
• 塞sèto stop up, to seal, to cork, to block; pass, fron
• 责zéone's responsibility, duty

Idioms sharing a character

• 敷衍了事 fū yǎn liǎo shì
• 塞翁失马 sài wēng shī mǎ
• 茅塞顿开 máo sè dùn kāi
• 闭门塞窦 bì mén sè dòu
• 守土有责 shǒu tǔ yǒu zé
• 征名责实 zhēng míng zé shí
• 求全责备 qiú quán zé bèi
• 尽职尽责 jìn zhí jìn zé
• 责有攸归 zé yǒu yōu guī

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.